Writing Secrecy in Caribbean Freemasonry

Jossianna Arroyo Martinez is Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, College of Liberal Arts.View author's profile here.

Writing Secrecy in Caribbean Free Masonry analyzes the Masonic, literary, and political writings of Andrés Cassard, Ramón E. Betances, José Martí, Arturo Schomburg, and Rafael Serra, Spanish Caribbean intellectuals who lived in the decades of anti-colonial struggle in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Hispaniola (1860-1898). In the Caribbean, Masonic notions of liberal freedom coincided with the legacies of empire and colonial slavery, creating languages of secrecy, dissent, and radical affective politics that influenced radical Caribbean political cultures in the turn of the nineteenth century. By analyzing the lives, writings, and activism of these exiled Masonic intellectuals, this book provides insights into the Pan-Caribbean formations of nation and diaspora and sheds light on the role of print-culture, Masonic ritual and languages, racial ideologies, and community in the Caribbean and the United States.